Course Design:

Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Toronto,

Professor, Department of Anesthesia and Reanimation, Siberian State Medical University

Michael Gofeld, MD, PhD, FRCP (C) (Pain Medicine and Anaesthesia)

Associate Professor, Departments of Anesthesia University of Toronto and McMaster University.

The course has been peer-reviewed

The Premise

Pain is a common presenting complaint in Emergency Department. Not only pain is not well controlled in ED, the “typical” approach involves NSAIDs, acetaminophen and opioids. Chronic pain sufferers, persons with severe back pains, headaches, and facial pains present particular challenge.

In parallel, the decrease in opioids prescribing has become one of the most pressing public safety issues in modern medicine

Many MSK-related painful conditions can be diagnosed sonographically and treated with ultrasound-guided aspiration, and/or injecting local anaesthetics with or without steroids.

Presently, many Canadian EM practitioners have formal training and certification in ED ultrasonography through EDE I and EDE II courses and CEUS certification. The proposed course will build on their existing competencies and allow emergency practitioners to employ US guided techniques to achieve rapid control of patient’s pain sparing the use of opioids.